2015 in the Philippines details events of note that happened in the Philippines in 2015. International events that are connected, or concerned with the Philippines are also included in this significant and important article.
The year was designated by the Department of Tourism as Visit the Philippines Year.
Incumbents
President: Benigno S. Aquino III (Liberal) Vice President: Jejomar C. Binay Sr. (UNA) Congress (16th): Senate President: Franklin M. Drilon (Liberal) House Speaker: Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. (Liberal) Chief Justice: Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno
Events
January January 6 – Importer Lilia Cruz also known as Leah Cruz, Bureau of Plant Industry Director Clarito Barron, and 119 other persons are charged by the National Bureau of Investigation of direct bribery and violation of the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act at the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged garlic cartel last year. January 9 – The Supreme Court declares its decision on the unconstitutionality of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), popularly termed as the pork barrel funds, final and executory. January 12 – Sandiganbayan finds former Board of Nursing member Virginia Diodola-Madeja guilty of violating the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act and the PRC Modernization Act of 2000 and sentences her to 7 years imprisonment for leaking questions in the June 2006 Nursing Licensure Examinations. She is also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 pesos and is barred from holding public office. January 14 – A bomb destroys a transmission tower in Pagalungan leaving much of the provinces of Maguindanao and Cotabato without power.
January 15–19 – Pope Francis visits the country for a five-day state and pastoral visit. The pope also visits the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte. This is the first papal visit to the Philippines in the 21st century. January 19 – Eleven people are killed while four others are injured after a wall collapses at a construction site in Guiguinto, Bulacan. January 21 – The Supreme Court rules in an 11–3 vote to dismiss several petitions calling for the disqualification of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. January 23 – An explosion occurs near a bus terminal in Barangay Guiwan, Zamboanga City, killing two people and injuring 53. The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) are blamed for the attack.
January 25 – 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) are killed after a clash in Tukalinapao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao against armed fighters including those from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. PNP-SAF's objective is to pursue Zulkifli Abdhir also known as Marwan and Abdul Basit Usman as part of Oplan Exodus and killed the former. The deaths of the PNP-SAF officers ignite debate on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law which will be the foundation of the new Bangsamoro autonomous region. January 26 – The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee holds Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin "Junjun" Binay and five other officials of the Makati city government in contempt due to their alleged continued snub of an ongoing Senate probe. Three days later, Binay is arrested and forced to appear in the Senate hearing but the detention is deferred leading to his release. January 27 – The Department of Justice rejects the appeal by United States Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to drop the murder charges against him over the Death of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman. The trial begins on March 23. January 29 – The Government of the Philippines and the MILF sign a protocol for the decommissioning of rebel firearms in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. January 31 – Two Philippine Air Force (PAF) pilots are killed after their SF-260FH Number 1034 trainer aircraft crashes around 300 meters off the coast of Nasugbu, Batangas, while attending their performance for the upcoming 70th anniversary of the liberation of the town from Japanese occupation during World War II.
February February 2 – Former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos is acquitted on the 2007 electoral sabotage case by the Pasay Regional Trial Court. February 3 – The Supreme Court affirms the unconstitutionality of the Disbursement Acceleration Program on its new ruling. Voting 13–0, the court partially grants the government's Motion for Reconsideration on the DAP. Projects and programs that not covered by the General Approriations Act is ruled valid and the authors may be liable. February 5 – The Department of Foreign Affairs files two protest notes questioning China for ramming Filipino fishing boats and collecting giant clams over Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc). February 14 – 50 rebel members of the New People's Army figure in a failed attack and shootout inside a police station in Mati, Davao Oriental. Four soldiers and a NPA member are killed. February 18 – Masbate Governor Rizalina Lanete surrenders to the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detention Group after the Sandiganbayan issues a warrant of arrest against her in connection with her participation in the PDAF scam. February 24 – The Supreme Court decides affirmatively about the dismissal of PMA Cadet Aldrin Jeff Cudia in 2014 due to honor code violations. February 25: Former Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives party-list Representative Edgar Valdez surrenders to a sheriff of the Sandiganbayan. Valdez is facing one count of plunder and seven counts of graft for allegedly receiving P57.78 million worth of kickbacks from the PDAF scam. The AFP declares its all-out offensive campaign against the MILF break away group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. On March 3, Maguindanao is placed under the state of calamity due to the continuing fighting between the military and the BIFF. In an encounter on March 7, the AFP confirms that 139 members including commanders of the BIFF were killed, including a relative of BIFF founder Ameril Umbra Kato. On March 30, the AFP announces the termination of the all-out offensive against the group. February 28 – Twenty-six people are killed, including two soldiers and 24 members of the Abu Sayyaf Group during clashes in Patikul, Sulu.
March
March 4 – The wreck of the World War II Japanese battleship Musashi is found by Paul Allen and his team in the Sibuyan Sea. Musashi was one of the two biggest Japanese battleships ever built; it was attacked and sunk by American aircraft on October 24, 1944, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. March 6 – The Office of the Ombudsman's special panel of investigators files complaints against Vice President Jejomar Binay, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, and 22 individuals, in connection with the overpriced Makati City Hall II Parking Building. Ombudsman will start the preliminary probe after the filing of the cases. On March 11, the Ombudsman suspends Junjun Binay and other city officials for 6 months in connection with the case. Binay defies the decision. On March 16, plunder and graft charges are filed against the two Binays for the alleged overpricing of the building. The elder Binay was city mayor and the younger Binay a city councilor at the time of the construction. On the same date, the Court of Appeals releases a temporary restraining order for the preventive suspension of Mayor Binay. On April 6, the Court of Appeals indefinitely extends its halt order on the preventive suspension of Junjun Binay, as the appellate court issues a writ of preliminary injunction in his favor. On the other hand, Acting Mayor Romulo Peña is ordered by the Department of the Interior and Local Government to step down and return to his previous post as vice mayor. On November 11, the Supreme Court reverses the Ombudsman's decision to suspend Junjun Binay. March 8 – British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney files a case for the continued detention of former president and Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo against the government before the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a body under the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. On October 2, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has releases its opinion that the detention of former President Arroyo "violates international law" and is "arbitrary on a number of grounds." March 9: DFA confirms the execution of Joven Esteva, an Overseas Filipino Worker who was charged of murder on the killing of his employer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2007. A Quezon City court orders the temporary release of Sajid Ampatuan, the son of Andal Ampatuan Sr., after Sajid posts bail of P11.6 million; Sajid was charged with murder in connection with the Maguindanao massacre on November 23, 2009, that killed 57 people including 31 journalists. March 15 – Justice for Islamic Movement founding chairman and former vice chairman of the BIFF, Mohamad Ali Tambako and five others are arrested in General Santos. March 17 – The Philippines submits its 3,000-page document containing additional volumes of arguments, evidence and maps seeking to nullify China's sweeping claim over the resource-rich South China Sea to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. March 20 – The AFP transports 17 suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group from the Zamboanga City jail to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig, over security concerns raised by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. March 22 – The first of three new C-295 medium lift aircraft under the Philippine Air Force Modernization Program arrives at Clark Air Base in Pampanga. March 26 – President Aquino signs Republic Act No. 10656 into law that postpones the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to October 2016. This postponement was the fourth time. On March 25, the Commission on Elections had deferred the SK elections to April 25. Previously, the election was supposedly to be held on October 28, 2013; it was again postponed to February 21, 2015.
April April 6 – Gemma Adana, the mayor of Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay is abducted by a heavily armed group in her house. She is released after over six months in captivity on October 12.
April 14 – In connection with the serious illegal detention case, Janet Lim Napoles, the mastermind of the PDAF Scam, is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt and is sentenced to reclusion perpetua. April 20 – The AFP releases the pictures of the continued reclamation of China in the South China Sea. April 21 – The Supreme Court voids an agreement between the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic-TIM for the P300-million diagnostics and repair of the 80,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan machines for the 2016 polls. April 22 – The Supreme Court releases a Temporary Restraining Order for the memorandum issued by the Commission on Higher Education on the removal of Filipino and Literature college subjects as part of the K to 12 education program. April 29 – The execution of convicted Filipina drug mule Mary Jane Veloso in Indonesia is postponed.
May
May 3 – Abdul Basit Usman, the most wanted bomb expert in the country, is killed by an MILF group unit in Guindulungan, Maguindanao. May 6 – The Court of Tax Appeals lifts the arrest warrant it issued against Jeane Catherine Napoles, the daughter of Janet Lim Napoles, after she failed to show up for her arraignment on a P17.46-million tax evasion case. May 8: The Commission on Elections conducts recall election in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Incumbent mayor Lucilo Bayron successfully defends his seat. Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan Domingo D. Lucenario dies in a helicopter crash in Pakistan along with several other diplomats and the two helicopter pilots. The MILF registers the United Bangsamoro Justice Party as its vehicle to run in future elections. May 11 – The Court of Appeals has freezes 242 bank accounts and insurance policies belonging to Vice President Binay, some members of his family and close associates, who are suspected of being his dummies.